“Landmark” research takes psychiatry in a new direction

New research by 40 of the world’s top neuroscientists has given a powerful new push to the idea that mental disorders could be linked to energy levels in the brain.

Professor Zoltan Sarnyai from James Cook University’s Margaret Roderick Centre for Mental Health Research was at the invite-only  week-long meeting in Frankfurt and co-authored the paper resulting from it.

He said research over the past half century has provided many insights into energy production and utilisation in the brain.

“We see significant aberrations in how the brains of people with neuropsychiatric disorders get, transform and use energy – their brains’ bioenergetics. So, targeting these abnormalities could be an effective treatment,” said Professor Sarnyai.

He said the tight correlation between energy supply and brain activity, along with the absence of major energy reserves within the brain itself, makes brain tissue unusually sensitive to bioenergetic disruptions.

“We can see this in cases of ‘recovery’ from cardiac arrest when brain death can occur even though the rest of the body emerges without significant damage,” said Professor Sarnyai.

He said the scientists concluded bioenergetic abnormalities are not a downstream consequence of having a psychiatric disorder or its treatment, but a hallmark of mental illness.

“This is a landmark paper, laying the foundation for a new branch of psychiatry and mental health research.

“We now face the critical and exciting question of whether improving body chemistry – through drugs, diet or some other way - in a young person at risk of developing a major psychiatric disorder could protect them against severe illness,” said Professor Sarnyai.

He said an existing example is the success of the ketogenic diet in improving the condition of some patients with mood and psychotic disorders or epilepsy.

“Future research will provide more specific information linking types of energy dysregulation to brain dysfunction and psychiatric symptom formation.

“This will also guide the development of specific interventions for specific neuropsychiatric problems, or perhaps for specific individual metabolisms,” said Professor Sarnyai.

He said there is immense pressure on psychiatrists and researchers to find answers for their patients and public trust had been undermined by scientists jumping the gun in the past.

“These new treatments will not be miracle cures. They will likely add to our existing tool set. But even with this note of caution, energy metabolism research and metabolic interventions are now set to play an ever-growing role in psychiatry.”

Link to paper here.